1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an exercising device and, in particular, to a piece of gymnastic equipment worn on a user's body for aiding the user to learn a "planche" feat.
2. Description of the Related Art
A "planche" is the name of a particular gymnastic feat, exercise or routine performed on either rings, parallel bars or a vaulting horse. In the feat, the gymnast makes his or her body straight as a board. The name of the feat comes from the French word "planche" meaning either "board" or "plank".
A training device for aiding Soviet gymnasts to learn the planche feat is known from a Russian magazine article published in 1980 and is shown in FIGS. 1 through 2C of the drawings.
In FIG. 1, a perspective view of the Soviet training device 10 is shown. The device 10 has a rigid wooden back board 12, a first leather chest belt 14A, and a second leather abdominal belt 14B. The two belts 14A and 14B have metal buckles 16A and 16B, respectively. A rigid metal pole 18 projects from a narrowed portion 12A at an upper end of the board 12 and has a plurality of weights 19 thereon which are slidable along the length of the pole 18. At an opposite end of the board 12, there is a widened portion 12B which contacts a gymnast's lower back.
In FIG. 2A, a gymnast G is seen performing an exercise on a floor F with the training device 10 of the prior art. In FIG. 2B, the gymnast G is wearing the training device 10 to perform the planche feat on rings R while in FIG. 2C the gymnast G is wearing the training device 10 to learn the planche feat in an inverted position on the rings R.
Although the training device 10 of the prior art is helpful to the gymnast G in learning the planche feat, it has certain disadvantages which may be seen from FIGS. 2A through 2C. First of all, the wooden board 12, the leather belts 14A and 14B, and the metal buckles 16A and 16B are extremely hard and uncomfortable to wear on the gymnast's body, because the belts 14A and 14B are not extensible, they do not move with the rhythm of the gymnast's breathing and therefore may allow the device 10 to slip down the wearer's body when the gymnast is standing and exhales air especially if the device 10 was strapped on when the gymnast had his or her lungs full of air. Also, the widened portion 12B at the lower end of the wooden board 12 tends to dig into the gymnast's back if the planche feat is not being done correctly, particularly when the gymnast's lower trunk and legs are not perfectly straight but drop at an angle. This digging into the gymnast's back by the widened portion 12B if the legs drop is particularly evident when the gymnast G is trying to learn the planche feat in the upwardly facing position shown in FIG. 2B. Finally, because the pole 18 is straight, the weights 19 have a tendency to slide downwardly and strike the back of the gymnast's head whenever the gymnast G is either standing or tilting at an angle with the head leaning upwardly and the legs pointing downwardly.
Because of these and other disadvantages in the known training device 10 of the prior art, there is a need to develop a piece of gymnastic equipment which would be helpful in learning the planche feat but which would also be comfortable to wear and safe to use.